For a few years, the American Indian Model Charter Schools in Oakland, California, were the most celebrated charter schools in the nation, beloved especially by the conservative and rightwing media, not only for their high test scores but for their founder’s scathing comments about liberals, unions, and “multiculturalists.” Despite the name of the charter, it enrolled few American Indians; most of its students are Asian-Americans. Its discipline was harsh. The school boasted of its “back to basics squared” conservative philosophy.
The adulation slowed when an audit revealed that the founder had diverted $3.8 million in public funds to his other business activities. The district and county officials wanted to close them because of financial mismanagement and possible fraud, but a three judge panel ruled that their high test scores were reason to keep them open.
“The Oakland school district can appeal to the state Supreme Court, but if the injunction stands, the schools would stay open while the legal case plays out.
“Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline, in the unanimous ruling by the First District’s three-member panel, agreed with the lower court ruling, saying in the decision that district officials did not adequately consider the schools’ academic performance in the revocation decision.”
And more:
“In the meantime, a Superior Court judge is expected to rule on the actual merits of the case, determining whether the decision to close the schools was valid. The two sides presented their arguments on May 20 and a ruling is expected any day, said district spokeswoman Sue Piper.
“The three schools, which had about 850 students in grades K-12 in the 2013-14 school year, have been among the highest-scoring schools in the state.
“While the schools were initially created to serve American Indian students, enrollment is about 70 percent Asian, 12 percent English learner and 75 percent low-income, according to state data.
“While the charters have been lauded academically, a 2012 audit of the charter organization found financial impropriety, including $3.8 million in payments to the school’s former director, Ben Chavis, and his wife through real estate deals, consulting agreements and other services, raising ethical and conflict-of-interest concerns. An April 2013 report by the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team confirmed those findings a month after the Oakland school board voted to shut the schools down.”
Chavis stepped down as director of the schools but he is doing well financially as he collects rent from them. He owns the properties.
Meanwhile, “the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service raided the schools and Chavis’ Oakland home, seizing several boxes of documents, phones and computers. FBI officials did not respond to inquiries regarding the scope or nature of any ongoing investigation.”
The saga continues.
If most of the students were Asian or Asian American, then the school, its management and curriculum had nothing to do with the high test scores, because this racial segment of America’s student population—on average—learns in any setting and also has high test scores no matter where the school is located or how the school is managed.
Across the country, Asians have the highest high school graduation rates, the highest average GPA, the highest standardized test scores, the highest ratio of students going on to college, the highest ratio of college graduation, and the list goes on and on.
Focusing on a high ratio of Asian students almost guarantees high standardized test scores no matter who teaches the kids or the management style of the school. This formula is an almost guaranteed winner.
This says it has to do with parents and how they make their children feel about learning. How imperative education is to parents will reflect in the efforts of their children.
In addition, if the private-sector, for profit-charter school want to stack the deck in their favor, then they will focus on the racial group of students who will perform the best on tests and exclude as many of the other racial groups as possible.
It’s easy to discover what racial group does best on standardized tests. Just look at the school report cards of public schools in California.
Or, for instance, the ACT composite score average:
Asian American/Pacific Islander was 23.2; white was 22.2; black was 16.9; Hispanic was 18.9 and American Indian was 18.9. Load a school up with Asian Americans and that brings the average test score up dramatically.
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_147.asp
I agree . There is a profound cultural difference that makes this so. While Asian children are immersed in studies and likely to live in strict households where they attend tutoring after school and practice tests on Saturday, Native Americans and Katinos have a more fatalistic attitude, and their parets are more concerned that they behave well than score well. I do not believe Asian students are smarter per say, but they practice the tests and are expected to excell. Because they are cobditioned very early in life to have discipline and to compete for grades, even the more reluctant scholars tend to be better test takers because they are well aware of the tricks to guess well and more aware of the vocabulary , close reading and concepts in all discipline. Their math skills out shine all others. White kids are a mixed bag , but affluent white kids can be indifferent too.
I have worked with all these groups. Asian American kids are most conflicted by exposition and reading that is not technical. Those are things that Latinos and Tribal students respond to well. Art is kind of the big commonality all students are empowered by. But it is the thing plutocrats want to deprive them of.
I think you have inadvertently described the reason why Common Core will fail miserably and create much unrest over time. One size does not fit all because every child is unique and different and cultural differences amplify that.
The best way to deal with these differences is teachers who are not constrained by lock step programs designed to churn out an assembly line clone that fits the image of a child in the mind of someone like a Bill Gates, who is probably more of an automation himself than most people.
The above article says that the discipline was harsh. I wonder if that harsh discipline drove out many kids (behavior or learning problems) or discouraged many parents from enrolling their kids at that school in the first place? Kids who would probably end up at the district schools? What was the percentage of kids with special needs and learning problems as compared to the real public schools?
Well, something happened to change the demographic makeup of the school, because it went from 96% free and reduced lunch in 2002 to 70% today according to the opinion.
Also, I have to say, California lawmakers did this to themselves. It looks like they amended the charter law to make test scores THE most important factor. That was an invitation for corruption.
Click to access A139652.PDF
So it’s OKAY that taxpayer money is being stolen, as long as the test scores are high? Do these idiot judges even HEAR themselves? It’s OUR money that’s being stolen! And, if that much money has been stolen, then can we even trust the test scores? If they’re willing to steal, they’re probably willing to lie and cheat, too. There’s no evidence of this (that I know of), but why didn’t the judges consider that?
So even though there are “ethical and conflict-of-interest concerns” there is no doubt that the numbers/stats being provided re test scores and every else are trustworthy and accurate?
😱
Another example of Vergara Decision thinking at work.
Perhaps there will be a new “JuristsForAmerica” program, modeled on TFA, so that after 5 weeks of training recent college/university graduates will replace lazy old washed-up “grossly ineffective” judges with enthusiastic energetic “highly effective” JFAs eager to pay off their student loans—before they go on to their “real” careers.
Not a joke. Worse has already happened.
😎
…and RIGOR…
At this point we know that ethical behavior is not evident in these reform movements. This decision by these judges is wrong and not in the best interest of the public or the school. If good test scores are the reason to maintain this charter, this will only encourage cheating and teaching to the fest.and in a number of casas, we’ve found this to be true. Lies, damn lies and statistics ruling our public expenditures of education money. No, I’ll never support that. In addition, the weak oversight given charters, this is a recipe for increasing fraud and financial misconduct.
Paula is right. We know that our public schools in LA have cheated under deviant leadership and with the district’s blessings because scores insure grants are available at some schols,. Of course, the money is not used as it is designed to be used we know there is resist, fraud involving false student rosters, payroll for employees who do nut actually work, underqualified, uncredentialed administrators and teachers, ADA is an egregious daily scam with admin lying about attendance and undermining truancy records and intervention. We see terrible fund grubbing efforts that stack special education kids in classes and exploit them for money that is supposed to be used for some program or additional staff but it never is.
There are cops who ticket tardy kids as truants when they arrive a late to school creating an obvious parent approved choice to be truant rather than tardy because the kids know they will not get tickets their parents cannot pay that way. Their folks send them in with notes and lament the circumstances that make it almost impossible to get kids to school on time. Traffic, multiple drop offs, chaotic households, car problems, chedule conflicts, distance and other factors are not recognized by school admin.some teachers hep students sneak into school and class in the morning, writing passes ahea of time, lying to the supervision people and campus police to protect students they want in class late or not.
But charter school corruption us frequently an issue at LAUSD. Aspire. Schools with stellar screws and solid community buy in recently faced possible closure because there were accusations ithe board had been acting outside the ethical guidelines LAUSD itself has no deferrence to. When the parents and students protested, the entire board was removed so I suspect there is more to it than allegations of misconduct. Often high performing charters are slated to get the ax, but many low performing schools get reprieves. The public schools are never afforded the debate or repreibpves charters do. They can bring up scores, point out they have not been afforded time to bring them up ( can anyone take an 600 AYP and make it 800 in a year or two without cheating? I seriously doubt that) Clinton MS recruited a staff of veterans to staff it . This brand new campus had 2% who could speak English proficiently . It is in a very poor hood where most people are undocumented or on public assistance. Believing they were chosen for thoe expertise, teachers brought up the AYP in two years but more impressive, was their ability to create campus culture. When the district issued pink slips after the legal deadline of May 15, school was about to close for summer.
They protested and parents joined them. It was incredibly unfair, but LAUSD has already given the school to a charter company. All those teachers were displaced . When they reapplied at Clinton they were rejected , to rub salt in the wounds they soon realized no other schools were going to hire them. These teachers had decades of service and had agreed to work there because the students were the most needy.
Their dedication and stellar work ethic was rewarded with betrayal and an end to careers that meant they did not get full benefits or pensions they were all pretty close to vested i. I don’t think they caught on to the fact that they were set up. Some blaned the exile on their protests. Others accepted they had failed to do what was impossible. That was a few tears ago before we understood how diabolical this was
The reconstituted schools leave many older teachers scrambling for positions . Mostly te younger staff is selected . But the teachers with a 5 or 10 years in understand they too will be pushed out eventually.
School choice is rarely afforded to parents who ask for it,
Here is a list of some schools get were usurped despite parents choice for public schools instead of charters– notably IEPs are highly concentrated here and will not be admitted to most of the charter schools. Charter schools closed against parent’s wishes are also listed
Crnshaw HS
Fremont HS
Clay MS
Clinton MS
La Salle ES
jordon HS
Locke ( which was much improved by Green Dot for awhile)
Sensimmila Academy ( granted many second chances by BOE until director refused to follow protocol about his budget according to reports)
Aspire MATH?
Roosevelt ( PLAS)
Weingart ES
There are many more I just cannot keep up with all of it. To make matters worse, public schools are now forced to share campus with charters which is creating conflict & chaos.
.
Actually the school is nearly entirely Chinese, not ‘Asian’, which is a meaningless statistical almagam.
Why is it that schools, especially charters, always make the assumption that minority children need structure and discipline to achieve. Has anyone ever started a school that emphasized creativity, free expression and learning choices and applied the principles of self guided learning to low income and minority children? I suspect many children would thrive under such as system once they became accustomed to being responsible for their learning. Instead we always hear about harsh discipline, uniforms, and back-to-basics curricula. It’s like charter companies and even public schools assume that the kids are going to be poorly behaved and low achieving just because their families don’t have a lot of money or education. So the children oblige by living down to the expectations.
Please don’t assume that schools, especially charters, “always make the assumption that minority students need structure & discipline to achieve.”
Here’s a school that helps students give write and perform music as it helps them develop more traditional academic skills. It works with youngsters with whom traditional schools have failed. http://www.hsra.org/ An array of companies and government groups have contracted with the school to have students produced you tube videos.
What that judge doesn’t get, is that likely the test scores are fake too.
When the director of a school is that corrupt, it likely extends to those “high test scores” as well.
If one cannot trust his financial records, what makes them think they can trust the test scores?
I am very surprised about the unanimous decision of that appellate court. I sure hope that Vergara does not go to that same judicial panel!
Joe,
All children need structure and discipline to learn.
Of course that doesn’t mean a need for the kind of school described in the article.
I think those of us who thought years ago that Summerhill was a great idea learned that it was not. Kids need structure from adults.
Music learning, in fact, requires a great deal of structure and discipline.
In any case, this is off subject. I agree that school should be closed, and that judicial decision is wrong.
By the way, it is not surprising that a school with predominantly Asian students might get higher test scores than the average. Not a functionof race, but of culture. (A school with predominantly Jewish students will also get higher test scores than the average.) It doesn’t mean that school is particularly goo, even if the scores are accurate. (I think it is not quite accurate if we say that the only factor that accounts for the difference in academic achievement between ethnic groups is poverty. Poverty is certainly a major factor, but there are others as well, such as culture, and the education level of the parents. (The latter probably most important.) (Of course, there are connections between these factors, in that kids in poverty are not likely to have highly educated parents.)